Cleaning Your Aquarium

Performing Your Weekly 10-15% Water Change

(The First Tank Guide)

For all of you who have asked about cleaning fish tanks... Cleaning your aquarium is a simple
and straight forward task, and should not take very long (Unless you have
a particularly small tank or bowl, in which
case care can be quite cumbersome and time consuming). The better care
you provide for your tank, the healthier your
fish will be, the nicer your tank will look and the easier your tank
will be to care for in the future.

Don't I Have to Remove Everything from the Fish Tank when
Cleaning?

You should not need to take all the stuff (plants, decorations, etc.) out of the fish tank
when you clean it. In fact, I would not recommend it. This just
produces extra work for you and creates a large and unnecessary
mess. Remember, every surface in the tank will grow some beneficial
bacteria that are part of the biological filter. By removing and
cleaning the decorations you stress (and may even kill) some of this
bacteria, reducing the quality of your filtration until the filter
recovers.

What About Removing the Fish when Cleaning the Aquarium?

Similarly, you do not want to remove the fish from the tank when
you do your regular 10-15% water change. This, again, is a lot more
work on you, and creates an unnecessary mess. In addition, this can be
highly stressful to the fish, and is likely to cause physical injuries
to your fish.

OK, So How Do I Clean My Fish Tank?

When cleaning your aquarium, you should just remove part (10-15%)
of the water and replace it with fresh, dechlorinated tap water (bowls and
vases require larger water changes more
often). While you are doing this, you should use your siphon to suck up some of the gunk that collects
in the gravel and decorations. If you have an under gravel filter, it is very important to clean
the gravel when you do
your weekly water changes, this will prevent detritus and other
decaying organic matter from blocking the passages between the pebbles
and restricting water flow. Generally, you can clean 25-33% (1/4-1/3)
of the gravel while siphoning out 10-15% of the water.

What About Algae?

If you have algae growing on the surface
of the tank or ornaments, you should get an algae scraper of some sort
and scrub the glass before removing water. Many varieties of
algae scrapers or scrubbers are available at your local pet store. For additional cleanliness,
you could get algae eating catfish and/or scavengers to pick up some
of this work for you, however, having catfish in the tank does NOT
mean that you don't need to clean. In fact, algae eaters and
catfish, like any other fish, will add to the biological load of your tank and
increasemaintenance
requirements. (And even those catfish that will eat some algae
will not eat much and are unlikely to keep the tank looking
clean.)

Catfish or no catfish, I recommend doing 10-15% water changes once a week for
the life of your aquarium. Once you get into this habit, it is not
really that much work. Really, it isn't that much
work. Cleaning all the fish tanks in a local pet shop was only a 3
hour job. Doing your weekly water change in your own home aquarium
should not take too long.

What If My Filter Is Dirty?

If you have to clean out the filter(s)
do not change all the media (cartridges, sponges, carbon packets,
etc.) at once, as this will remove the majority of your biological filter, causing the
tank to have to go through a cycling period
again to get bacteria reestablished. Rinse any new filter media in
cool running water before introducing it to the system (unless the
instructions for the filter media specifically state not to).

OK, I Have the Old Water Out, Now What?

Once you have siphoned 10-15% of the water from your tank, you will
need to fill it again. The easiest and neatest way to do this, is to
use a siphon to siphon water from a bucket into the tank. This will tend
to reduce spilling and messing up the gravel and decorations. Use a bucket that has never
had detergents or household chemicals in it (I recommend getting a bucket specifically for use for aquarium
chores) and fill it with water. The water should be close to the
temperature of the tank water that you just took out (the average
person can tell temperature differences within 1/2 degree Fahrenheit
or about 1/4 degree Celsius with their hand, so just feel the water to
see if it is the same). Use a chlorine or
chloramine remover to prepare the water for introduction into the
tank. Place the bucket somewhere higher than the top of the fish
tank, and get your siphon going again and in just a couple of minutes,
you should have a full tank. Be sure to watch the siphon, in case the
hose gets bumped out of the tank, or if there is enough water in your
bucket to overfill the tank. Remember, there needs to be some space
between the top of the water and the aquarium cover, because your fish
rely on oxygen exchange at the surface of the water in order to be
able to breathe.

What About Topping Off the Fish Tank Between Water Changes?

Do not just "top off the tank" to replace water that "disappears."
This water that is disappearing is evaporating, and it leaves behind
all the impurities that were in it to begin with. This means that as
you just top off the tank, you are making your water harder until it
will eventually no longer be able to support fish.

Additionally, if there are even trace amounts of heavy metals or
other toxic substances in the water, you are giving your fish more and
more of these every time you top off the tank. Most municipal water
systems have at trace levels of at least one potentially hazardous
substance, but in minuscule amounts these should never be trouble for
you or your fish. Furthermore, by not removing water from the tank
from time to time, you allow build up of waste products not removed by
the filter (such as Nitrate), which are
potentially hazardous to the fish and encourage algae growth.

Usually, if there is significant evaporation between water
changes, you are either going far too long between water changes, or
there is something wrong with the aquarium setup or equipment that is
causing or encouraging evaporation.